# Candidate and Company Research: practice workbook
Talent Engineering Academy | An education initiative by Vitae
Edition 2026.09 | Updated 2026-09-24
Course: https://talentengineering.org/courses/candidate-company-research

Build concise research briefs that separate professional facts, hypotheses and questions worth asking.

## Your deliverable
A candidate evidence brief and a company hiring hypothesis.

Use fictional information. Keep your completed work in your own secure notes. Exercises and capstone work are self-directed, not independently assessed.

## 1. Research purpose and permitted scope

Your notes:



## 2. Confirmed professional facts and sources

Your notes:



## 3. Relevant context and dates

Your notes:



## 4. Hypotheses clearly labelled

Your notes:



## 5. Missing evidence and verification questions

Your notes:



## 6. Next action and data handling

Your notes:



## Lesson exercises

### 1. Set a proportionate research scope

Write a research scope with five permitted fields and three exclusions for a fictional role.

Your response:


Worked example: A recruiter researching a production leader records project responsibility and public professional contributions. Family photographs and personal political posts are excluded because they do not support the agreed assessment criteria.

Self-review guidance: Every field should connect to a decision or contact purpose. Exclusions should be practical enough to guide a researcher when irrelevant information appears. Public accessibility is not a blanket permission to reuse data.

### 2. Read candidate evidence in context

Rewrite three fictional profile claims into evidence notes and follow-up questions.

Your response:


Worked example: A profile says the candidate worked on a £10m programme. The brief records programme exposure, not ownership of the entire budget. A follow-up asks which decisions and deliverables the candidate personally owned.

Self-review guidance: Use restrained language such as contributed to until ownership is established. Preserve context and source dates. Avoid turning absence of a listed skill into proof that the person lacks it.

### 3. Research organisations as changing systems

Create a company brief using three fictional events and two competing hiring explanations.

Your response:


Worked example: A company announces a new facility but says production begins next year. The hypothesis concerns phased leadership and commissioning needs, not an immediate claim that it urgently needs agency help.

Self-review guidance: Record what is confirmed, what follows only as a hypothesis and what a conversation must establish. One event can justify research without justifying a sales forecast or an assertion of hiring urgency.

### 4. Synthesize a brief that can be checked

Produce a one-page brief with three facts, two hypotheses and three verification questions.

Your response:


Worked example: A brief recommends a discovery conversation because two independently observed changes suggest a commissioning programme. It labels timing and external support needs as unknown and proposes two questions instead of a confident sales pitch.

Self-review guidance: A reader should identify which sentence is a fact and locate its supporting source. Remove any claim that cannot be supported or clearly labelled. End with the smallest useful next step, not an assumed commercial commitment.

## Portfolio review
Check that your work is internally consistent, distinguishes facts from assumptions, names decision owners and explains its limitations. Revise gaps before using the method in real work.

## Further reading
- [CIPD: Recruitment](https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/recruitment-factsheet/): Professional context for the recruitment lifecycle.
- [ICO: Recruitment and selection](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/recruitment-and-selection/): UK guidance. Check its current status and updates before implementation.

Original educational scenarios. References provide further reading and do not imply endorsement. Check current official rules and appropriate professional advice for real legal, financial or regulated decisions.